2023-11-17 11:06:45
Aareal Bank shares can only be easily bought and sold on the stock exchange until the beginning of next week. After being purchased by financial investors, they have now decided to discontinue the listing on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which was too expensive for them. Deutsche Börse has now approved this application, as Aareal Bank announced on Friday. This marks the end of a 21-year chapter for the Wiesbaden real estate financier on November 21st when the stock markets close.
In 1991, today’s Aareal Bank went public under the name Deutsche Pfandbrief- und Kreditbank. At that time it was part of the Depfa Group (formerly Deutsche Pfandbriefanstalt). In 2002, the state financier Depfa and today’s Aareal, which had been trading as Deutsche Bau- und Bodenbank AG since 1926, went their separate ways. But both banks became conspicuous again during the financial crisis: Depfa, based in Ireland, was initially bought by the Munich-based Hypo Real Estate in 2007 for what is now an incredible 5.2 billion euros and then a few months later was the main reason why HRE had to be nationalized during the financial crisis and HRE Germany incurred the highest losses of all bank rescues.
Aareal, on the other hand, did accept state aid in the form of silent contributions, but this was clearly a preventative measure and did not occur in an acute emergency. At least Aareal, unlike Commerzbank, was able to pay interest on the state’s silent contribution from the start and repay it in 2014.
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In recent years, Aareal Bank has attracted interest from activist investors like Petrus and financial investors. A consortium of investment companies Advent, Centerbridge, CPP Investments and Goldman Sachs now holds around 90 percent of the shares. In October they made the remaining shareholders an offer to purchase all outstanding shares at a price of 33.20 euros. As the financial investors announced on October 19th, this offer will end at midnight on November 21st.
As Aareal Bank announced on Friday, November 21st will – logically from the perspective of financial investors – also be the last day on which Aareal Bank shares will be traded on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Anyone who does not sell their Aareal shares by November 21st but wants to do so at a later date will have a harder time finding a buyer. There is also no longer necessarily a continuous market price for the share.
However, Aareal Bank also assured on Friday that it would continue to report on its business situation. “Despite our withdrawal from the regulated stock market, we will continue to communicate transparently and maintain high standards of disclosure,” said Chief Financial Officer Marc Heß.
A comment from Hanno Mußler Published/Updated: Recommendations: 52 Hanno Mußler, Archibald Preuschat, Johannes Ritter and Michaela Seiser Published/Updated: Recommendations: 41 Hanno Mußler Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 12
Certain publication obligations actually continue to exist simply because Aareal Bank has outstanding bonds. However, the disclosure requirements are lower than before. We are therefore likely to hear less from Aareal Bank in the future. The board is led by chairman Jochen Klösges, who previously worked for Commerzbank. Former Unicredit boss Jean-Pierre Mustier has chaired the supervisory board since May 2023.
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